Courtship
by Wing Moon
Summary: "I order you to undress right now!" Arthur whispers unsympathetically at a stunned looking Merlin under the bed.


**12/21/10- Thank you so much for ****MerthurForeverr.x** **for editing it! Sorry it took so long to edit it **Emily1237 **but thanks for telling me. =)**

Summary: "I order you to undress right now!" Arthur whispers unsympathetically at a stunned looking Merlin under the bed.

Courtship

Arthur was surrounded. Never in his life had his sword ever failed to protect him. Never would he admit that he is scared for his life. He could smell them a mile away, giving him just the right amount of time to slip away.

He should have known this was coming. He _was_ getting a bit lazy. After what had seemed like an age of their absence, this was what happened to him. Now they came in pairs, like dealing with one of them wasn't enough.

He had gotten so used to their absence that he forgot where all the good hiding places were.

He heard girlish giggling as he ran from behind one of the pillar to another.

There he waited for several minutes, simply listening to the sound of their footsteps fade.

When they finally were gone he slowly retreated back towards his room. The only place he knew they wouldn't find him.

000

Merlin couldn't see anything past the tremendous pile. The prince needed to stop dirtying all his clothes in a day.

He was just reaching for a shirt as a sock landed on the floor next to him. He attempted to grab it before the rest of the pile ended up on the floor.

"Excuse me," he heard a melodious voice behind him.

As he turned, he glimpsed long curly blond hair.

"How can I help you, my lady?" he asked kindly.

He watched her disappear behind the pile of clothes before reappearing with the sock.

"I think you are missing this." She said as she put it on the top of the pile.

"Thank you, my lady." He smiled at her.

"Oh don't thank me yet. I am wondering if you could do me a favour?"

He was about to answer when he saw an older woman come into view, looking down at him.

"Just show us where Arthur's room is, boy." The older woman ordered him.

"Mother, just because he is a servant doesn't mean you should talk to him like that."

Merlin felt his cheeks redden as the pretty blonde girl defended him.

"Anyway, we were wondering if you could show us where Arthur's room is," she said sweetly.

He didn't know if she saw him raise an eyebrow, but she seemed to have gotten the message when he didn't immediately answer.

"Oh," he could have sworn he saw hercheeks flush, "Arthur invited us to his room to see what it looks like."

He was hesitant only for a few more seconds before he shrugged. If Arthur wanted them to visit, then why should he stop them?

"Sure. I am going that way anyway," he said as started towards Arthur's chamber.

The two women shared a delighted smile.

000

Arthur was going to _kill_ Merlin for this!  
But first, he needed to hide.

He spun round, scanning for a place to hide. Hearing footsteps, and Merlin's dim-witted laughter, he quickly rolled under the bed.

As the door creaked open, Arthur wondered if he could make throwing anvils in the stocks legal.

000

"Here let me open the door for you," said Merlin, gallantly doing so.

The pretty blonde girl, who had revealed her name to be Mary, smiled shyly at him.

The door groaned open. Merlin made his way to the bed, dumping the pile of clothes there.

The two women entered the room with great wonder on their faces. You would think they had never seen a prince's room before.  
Well they _certainly_ had, but never did they meet a man that was able to escape their grasp before. But that wouldn't be an issue quite soon.

"We are going to look around," said Mary's companion, as she and Mary wandered deep into Arthur's room.

Merlin nodded to the two women, though they certainly didn't need his consent.

"No, you buffoon, don't let them in!"

Merlin spun around. He could have sworn that he heard Arthur's voice.

"Did you hear something?" he asked, turning to the two women.

"I didn't," responded Mary as she opened a drawer.

"Hmm,"

Maybe he just imagined it.

He stepped closer to the bed, ready to fold the clothes, when he heard it again.

"Mer-_lin_."

He jumped a foot in the air when he heard his name whispered in a familiar tone '_Don't-mess-with-me'_.

"A-a-are you sure?" Merlin asked the ladies as he looked around the room again, waiting for the prince to jump out nowhere and scream 'Surprise!'

"Sure. Are you OK?" asked Mary as she looked up from the drawer she's looking through.

Merlin slowly walked towards the bed again.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"There are no such things as monsters under the bed. There are no such things as monsters under the bed. There are no such things as monsters under the bed." Merlin mumbled his mantra under his breath as he continued to fold Arthur's clothes.

Then something swept past Merlin's knees.

"NO! LET GO!" He screamed, his knees buckling.

He was about to get up from the floor where he landed when two arms came out from under the bed, dragging him under.

000

"We are going to look around."

"_MERLIN!_" He screamed in his head, horrified as he heard the ladies enter his room.

Arthur watched the ladies move out of his view. Merlin his stupid, bumbling, horrible manservant, however, didn't stray from his sight.

He hissed his disapproval from under the bed to the back of Merlin's boot a little away from the bed.

"No, you buffoon, don't let them in!"

He was happy when Merlin's boots turned around and he heard Merlin ask the ladies if they heard anything. However, when they replied that they heard nothing, Merlin continued on with whatever he was doing.

Arthur's patience was wearing thin.

"Mer-_lin_."

He took even greater satisfaction when he saw Merlin jump back and then heard his manservant ask the pair, "A-a-are you sure?"

_What is wrong with these women?_ he wondered. If a dragon, Nimueh, zombies and all other monsters/creatures/whatever went bump in the night were to come charging into the room right then, he would bet they would welcome them, and simply ask them to assist.  
For what, he didn't know but if he didn't get out situation then, he didn't know how much longer he could stay under the bed without going insane.

Suddenly he got a stroke of genius. If he could just change his clothes; make them less princely. Then he could move out from under the bed and the nightmare would end.

Too bad his idea needed him to move out from under the bed and _go_ to get the clothes from one of servant.

Almost on the brink of going insane when he remembered that Merlin was still there. Without giving it another thought, he reached out and pulled his servant under.

000

The last thing he saw was Mary with her eyes widened and her mouth wide opened.

However, Merlin wasn't chosen to protect the prattiest prince of Camelot for nothing, as he grabbed the pillow from Arthur's bed and started beating the thing.

He would have used magic but there were the two ladies present.

Actually the only coherent thought going through his mind was.

"_Take that monster! Ha, you'll never take me alive!"_

000

Once this was over he was going to kill Merlin and leave the evidence somewhere no one would find it.

He grabbed the offensive pillow from Merlin and threw it away. He glared at his manservant, poking his head out from under the bed.

Merlin eyes connected with Arthur's and he seemed too stunned to say anything.

Arthur took this advantage as he kicked Merlin's legs from under him and dragged him under the bed.

000

Mary was scared, having seen Merlin dragged under the bed.

"Mother, I think we should leave." She whispered to her mother, who was standing in front of the window oblivious to everything around her.

"Nonsense, my dear! Look, we came all this way for you to marry this prince and you will. I'm tired of going around the realm just to find someone suitable for you!" her mother said harshly to her daughter.

Mary dropped her head in shame but mumbled under her breath, "I did find my prince. Just because he doesn't have riches and is a mere servant doesn't mean I love him any less."

That caught her mother's attention, but before she could said anything they both heard something under the bed.

"MERLIN, STOP MOVING!"

Mary ran into her mother's arms, but her mother pushed her daughter behind her. Bravely, she walked towards the bed but stopped a metre away when she heard rustle under the bed.

"W-w-w-w—w-ho…" she didn't get a chance to finish when two arms popped out the bed.

"ARGH!"

"MARY RUN!" hollered Mary's mother as she ran out the door and Mary doesn't even question her mother as she saw a blonde head pop out from under the bed.

Just when they thought it couldn't get any worse, Uther walked in.

"What is the meaning of this?"

000

"I order you to undress right now!" Arthur whispers unsympathetically at a stunned looking Merlin.

Merlin's mind screeched to a stop as he stared dumbfounded at Arthur.

Arthur had had enough. He reached across and tried to pull Merlin's jacket off.

Merlin's mind went into overdrive as he tried to figure out what was happening and pry Arthur's fingers off his favorite jacket.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he hissed back.

"Shut up, Mer-_lin _and listen to me for once. Undress right now!" barked Arthur as he aimed to grab the scarf from his manservant.

"Hey, stop that would you? What are you are asking anyway, lunatic! Arthur, I'm sorry but I only care for you as…." Merlin rambled on until Arthur's face was a few centimetres away from him.

Arthur's face was so red and you could see steam coming out his ears.

"Give. Me. Your. Clothes. Now." Arthur said as he puts Merlin in a head lock.

Merlin struggled to get out from under Arthur's arm as he felt Arthur start to take his jacket off again.

The last straw that broke the camel's back was Arthur hitting his head on the bottom of the bed as he tried to get the jacket off.

"MERLIN, STOP MOVING!"

Merlin simply kneed him in the groin.

"ARGH!"

Arthur growled, but before he could reach out to strangle Merlin, he had rolled out from under the bed.

Arthur put one arm out from under the bed and then the next one as he crawled out. As his head popped from under the bed he heard his father yell.

"What is the meaning of this?"

000

Arthur saw his father glare between them. Merlin, who took that time to get up from floor next to Arthur's bed, felt himself shrink as he waited for Arthur's father to unleash his wrath.

"Well you see..."

His father turned to look to his son. That didn't faze him as he went on to say,

"You see, there were these persistent women, and so we came up with this idea to be monster under the bed."

Merlin and his father gave him the same patronising look, before his father rolled his eyes at him.

"My God Arthur, next time just say no."

The doors slammed behind him as Uther left there presence.

Merlin took a deep breath as he looked at Arthur wearily.

"That was it? Why didn't you just tell me that?"

Arthur didn't want to tell Merlin the truth, so instead, wrapped an arm around the gangly body.

"Oh you know me Merlin. Always think of most brilliant things in nick of time. Just like all those times I had to save your life with that talent. Without me you probably die. "

000

The End

000

I don't own Merlin.

**LOL, that was so much fun to write even though I'm not so happy about the ending. Anyways I wanted to write something complete humorous but I think I sort of failed. Since I was continued to write so much angst stuff I wanted to take a break. So I wrote this story even though it was only suppose to be a page or two but turn out to be more. Sorry for any mistakes I tried to correct all of them. **

**Please review! **


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